Iron Nest
Review

IRON NEST: Heavy Turret Simulator provides you with one specific task to accomplish - you are the gunner. So if you want a game that would put the focus on procedural thinking and machinery, this is your thing.

The Math of War

Iron Nest is, essentially, a puzzle disguised as a war game. You aren't running around the battlefield shooting people and collecting health kits - you are triangulating coordinates using a massive table map, understanding what the hell those spotter reports mean using a typewriter, figuring out proper powder charge, and calculating arcs to shoot at.

At first, the whole process may seem overwhelming, but soon you will get used to the rhythm - which will make you really addicted to the game. A trial-by-fire approach is just perfect here - the horror and hilarity of realizing that you have forgotten to take drag into account and have killed a friendly hospital because of that is just fantastic. When you do hit the target, the feeling of success after a blind shot that takes out the enemy artillery unit is a pure rush of dopamine.

For the people who enjoy hardcore simulation, this game is perfect - the developers are now actively being begged not to simplify anything, including manual calculation of air resistance and muzzle velocity using physics. And it just scratches the particular itch perfectly.

Diesel-Punk Setting and Incredible Soundtrack

The way this game is presented is truly amazing. It features the 1920s diesel-punk setting, and it is really immersive. The lights flicker because of the shaking machine, and there is even some coziness to it - like being able to brew your espresso and even pet the turret cat (which you can clothe in a commander suit).

But the absolute star of the game is its soundtrack - this is the kind of game that you should play with a decent pair of headphones on. The deafening boom of the main cannon, metallic groans and squeaks of the moving turret, and pressure valve sounds are just awesome. And it just makes the whole machine feel heavy and alive.

Friction in the Machinery

The problem is, despite having the excellent core loop, Iron Nest has several growing pains that need to be worked out.

• No Mid-Mission Saves: At the moment, this is the most serious flaw of the game. Missions may take up to two hours to complete, and you have to carefully plan your shots. If you need to switch off the computer, you have to leave it playing in the background. And you have to implement a mid-mission save function.
• Tedious Information Management: Spotter reports constantly provide you with the coordinates of various targets, and currently, you cannot mark them as irrelevant. Because of that, if you have to track 20+ targets, the information management system becomes quite tedious.
• Achievement Bugs: For the completionists, the achievement and medals system has some problems with the criteria and the progression blockers, making 100% completion an annoying thing rather than a challenge.

The Verdict

IRON NEST: Heavy Turret Simulator is an excellent and very focused game. It takes the stress of bureaucratic paper-pushing, present in Papers, Please, and applies it to the awesome destruction of the artillery cannon. Despite the mentioned issues, which are typical problems of games made by a small team, the core loop of triangulating targets and pulling the trigger is immensely satisfying.